These Smoked Chicken Legs are a summer favorite around here! They are packed with smoke flavor, a simple dry rub, and are going to become a staple on your summer menu plan!
The Best Smoked Chicken Legs
Nothing beats that crispy chicken skin on the outside of smoked chicken drumsticks, right?! This chicken leg recipe is cooked to absolute perfection with a dry rub that will knock your socks off! Learn how to achieve that perfect combo of crispy skin on the outside and juicy meat on the inside using your pellet smoker.
Looking for Another Smoked Chicken Recipe?
If you love them as much as we do, you definitely need to try our Smoked Beer Can Chicken!
What You Will Need
- smoked chicken dry rub – highly recommend the savory flavor of our homemade smoked chicken dry rub or purchase your favorite store-bought version at the grocery store.
- chicken legs – this cut of chicken is perfect for a quick dinner or fun appetizer!
How To Smoke Chicken Legs
The first steps to making this easy recipe are to make sure the chicken legs are fully thawed.
Now pat them dry with paper towels. Cover them in the spice rub.
Put them directly on the preheated pellet grill! Let them cook for about a hour or until they hit 160 degrees internal temp. Chicken is fully cooked when it is 165 degrees F. internal temp, but we will finish these off on high heat. This is what the chicken legs look like after smoking for about an hour. If you want to keep smoking them until they are fully cooked, you can. Otherwise, pull them off when they hit 160 degrees F at the thickest part of the drumstick and give them an optional sear for a crispier skin.
To give them a sear, turn the smoker way up to a higher temperature (or use a gas grill). Sear on all sides, rotating every minute or two until the skin is nice and charred and the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F. After searing, pull them off and let the meat rest at room temperature for 5 minutes.
Best Ways To Serve Smoked Chicken Legs
There are so many different ways to serve some traditional smoked chicken legs! Enjoy as a main course by adding some side dishes to the smoker, like Smoked Asparagus, & Smoked Baked Beans. Or non-smoked side dish recipes, like Herbed Potatoes, Lemon Pasta, Deviled Egg Potato Salad, or Watermelon Mint Salad. We also love making these for Sunday game day with some ranch dressing for dipping!
Storage
Leftover chicken legs can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. The best way to reheat them is to actually turn your grill or smoker on high heat and sear them for a few minutes. That way the skin doesn’t get all soggy and gross.
Recipe FAQs
- How long does it take to smoke chicken legs at 225? It will take approximately 60 minutes to smoke chicken legs at 225 degrees F on the grill grates. with an additional 10 minutes on high heat to sear at the end.
- How do you get smoked chicken’s skin crispy? The secrete to getting smoked chicken’s skin crispy is to smoke it low and then end with a sear at the end. For this recipe, we smoke the legs for 60 minutes at 225 (or until they reach about 160 degrees internal temp) and then crank the heat up to 400-500 and sear them, rotating every few minutes. The result, crispy chicken skin and juicy meat!
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Other Delicious Recipes You Might Like
Smoked Pork Shoulder
Smoked Baby Back Ribs
Smoked Turkey
Double Smoked Ham
Smoked Chicken Legs
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner/Entree
- Method: Smoker
- Cuisine: American
Description
These easy Smoked Chicken Legs are crispy skin on the outside, juicy and delicious on the inside! Perfect for dinner or game day!
Ingredients
Dry Rub:
- 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon coriander
- 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
- optional: 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Smoked Chicken Legs:
- 12 chicken legs
Instructions
- Prep: Ensure grates are clean and preheat smoker to 225 degrees F.
- Season Chicken: Pat chicken legs dry with clean paper towel. Combine dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. Cover chicken legs in the dry rub, ensuring you get it into every nook and cranny.
- Smoke: Place chicken legs on the preheated smoker and close lid. Let smoke for approximately 1 hour or until chicken legs reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees F at the thickest part of the meat (use a digital meat thermometer).
- Optional Sear: Remove chicken legs from smoker and turn heat up to 500 degrees. Place chicken back on the smoker, searing each side for 1-2 minutes. Keep rotating until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.
- Rest + Serve: Remove chicken from the smoker and let rest 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Searing Optional: If you want to keep smoking the legs at 225 degrees F until they hit an internal temp of 165 degrees F, you can. Otherwise, pull them off when they hit 160 degrees and then turn the electric smoker way up to 400-500 degrees (or use a hot grill). Sear them on all sides, rotating every minute or two until the skin is nice and charred.
- Dry Rub Alternative: this all-purpose chicken dry rub is more herby, than this one, if you want another option.
- When is Chicken Fully Cooked: chicken is fully cooked when it reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees F. Remember, chicken will also keep cooking as it rests so don’t overcook the chicken or it will dry out.
- Wood Chips: the type of wood is your own personal preference, we tend to use sweet wood chips or wood pellets, like cherry wood or apple.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 drumstick
- Calories: 155
- Sugar: 0.1 g
- Sodium: 303.9 mg
- Fat: 4.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 0.9 g
- Fiber: 0.2 g
- Protein: 25.4 g
- Cholesterol: 115.7 mg
EH says
Love this recipe!
Joseph says
Turned out so moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. I folled the rub recipe, however being an avid smoker I couldn’t resist lightly smearing some american yellow mustard by rubbing into the legs before adding the rub.
I can’t say if it made a difference overall as I have not done thise recipe as per suggestion but they were a family pleaser, in fact I could have done another dozen or so and I am sure they would have gone also. Thank you so much for the recipe.
Erin says
So glad you enjoyed them, Joseph! And thank you for the feedback!